Jasmin Siddiqui from the street art project "Herakut" stand in the exhibition "Colours of Resilience" in Frankfurt Main, Germany, 06 June 2014. The exhibition deals with pictures and memories of Syrian refugee children in the various refugee camps that they have visited. Boris Roessler/DPA/Press Association Images. All rights reservedOn 28 March 2011, less than two weeks into
the Syrian uprising, the then Syrian Culture Minister Riad Esmat inaugurated
the Syrian Cultural Days in Turkey event with his Turkish counterpart Ertugrul
Gunay. The Syrian minister described the event as “a symbol of
the deep-rooted and developed relations between Syria and Turkey, which was not
merely an occasion for cultural and artistic exchange between the two
countries; but rather an everlasting festival of love between Syrian and
Turkish intellectuals.”
Yet this festival of everlasting love barely
lasted a month: in late April of that year, Ankara recalled its ambassador in
Damascus as one of its escalating
actions against the Syrian regime, followed by the severing of relations
between the two governments, and of course the annulment of the festival of eternal
love that Esmat had spoken about.
If we were to review the Syrian cultural
sphere in Turkey today, it would be clear that its reality is far more complex
than a seasonal cultural festival between two neighbouring countries. Now that
Syrian refugees have grown into large communities within Turkey, analysing the
map of Syrian cultural work would have to include studying the different
Turkish cities hosting cultural work, as well as the ideological differences
between Syrian cultural platforms based in Turkey.
What culture are we talking about?
In its 1982 conference in Mexico, UNESCO
defined culture
as "the whole complex of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and
emotional features that characterize a society or social group. It includes not
only the arts and letters, but also modes of life, the fundamental rights of
the human being, value systems, traditions and beliefs."
From an academic viewpoint, it has always
been difficult to define such a complex and multi-layered term as culture.
Therefore, this article will rely on the general UNESCO definition when
describing Syrian cultural work in Turkey.
In pre-revolutionary Syria, the term ‘culture’
was used broadly to describe all artistic and literary activities, as well as those
related to the humanities. Religious expressions were excluded from the Syrian definition
of culture, at least by the official platforms that formulated public opinion.
When examing Turkey, we will adopt a
broader definition of Syrian culture, which will include the activities of
Islamic institutions; as these institutions hold powerful social influence and
are representative of Syrian cultural expression in the eyes of many segments
of Turkish society. Therefore, our definition of Syrian cultural work in Turkey
includes these religious institutions, whether we like it or not, and therefore,
they should be mentioned at least when mapping Syrian culture.
Furthermore, the scope of our definition
here will include initiatives by cultural institutions rather than individual initiatives
that are difficult to monitor.
Culture near the border
The cultural effectiveness of the Syrian
community in Turkey does not depend on demographic density; not all Turkish
cities are overcrowded with culturally active Syrians. This is due to factors
related to the Turkish state’s structure and cultural centralisation dominated by
the cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir which are experiencing a cultural
renaissance compared to other cities with high population density, such as Urfa,
Gaziantep and Hatay in the south near the Syrian border. Each of these cities
has hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in addition to large local
populations.
The second reason for Syrian cultural stagnation
in Turkey’s southern cities are the policies of donor and civil society organizations,
whose work in the south often prioritises the needs of Syrians inside their
homeland over anyone else. Because of the crushing war in Syria, cultural work is
comparatively not a priority.
However, a notable exception is the city of
Gaziantep, which has many civil society centres that organise regular Syrian
cultural work. This is due to the nature of the Syrian social dynamic in the
city, which hosts a large segment of university educated Syrians working in
Syrian and international organisations. The Turkish government also plays a
crucial role in licensing and facilitating the work of such organizations,
which may face difficulties in other cities.
For example, in Gaziantep the Islamic Levant Society for
the Teaching of the Holy Quran implements Islamic cultural projects with
the support of Arab and Islamic donors, in parallel to Beitna
Souria Centre, a civil society organization and a secular cultural centre funded
by Denmark.
As for Urfa and Reyhanli, there is the Islamic Levant Organisation
as well as Sham Sherif Association. The Sham Sherif Association also operates
in Mersin, Gaziantep, Urfa and Bursa, where we also find the Syrian Cultural Centre/Fajr Iqraa,
whose slogan reads: ‘Raising future generations on Islamic moral standards.’
The Istanbul of contradictions
Moving onto the Turkish cultural capital,
there is a notable parallel presence of contradicting Syrian cultural
institutions.
In neighbourhoods with densely populated Syrian
communities, due to various economic and social factors, there is a high
concentration of Syrian Islamic cultural centres, such as the Islamic Sham Association,
Sham Khotaba Association [the Association
of Levantine Preachers] and the Syrian Islamic
Council, among others.
In parallel, there are secular cultural centres
that offer a non-religious Syrian cultural product that differ based on the organisational
culture and can be further categorised by their work mechanisms.
In the historic Al Fateh neighbourhood, we
find Safhat Bookstore, which,
together with Al Dar Centre in
the neighbourhood of Beyoglu, can be considered a Syrian cultural space, and
depends on the spatial nature of its location as a basic feature of its work.
The space in which this centre is located
is a work space where diverse and varied cultural activities can be implemented.
High quality outputs are not necessarily a prerequisite for this type of centre,
whose philosophy is to receive everyone rather than to produce intellectual or
artistic content, a fact observed in what we call Syrian cultural content
production centres.
As an example of Syrian cultural content
production centres, we find Hamish Centre in
Beyoglu and Arthere in the neighbourhood of Kadikoy, where the theoretical intellectual
product is dominated by lectures and meetings organized by Arthere.
Arthere focuses on the establishment of
artistic residencies for Syrian artists, to help integrate them into the
Turkish art market by presenting a Syrian product that is competitive in terms
of its artistic value rather than merely its Syrian identity.
Syria beyond the wall
The study of Syrian refugees’ cultural
expression in Turkey is of special importance today as it could help exploring
the future of Syrian communities in asylum countries, especially in societies
where public sentiment towards refugees plays a role greater than government
policies in giving refugees a sense of security or stability, as is the case
with Syria’s neighbours to one degree or another.
A few days ago, a tweet went
viral in Turkey, in which different Turkish cities were compared to the seven
kingdoms from the TV show, Game of Thrones. In that viral post,
Syria was ‘the place beyond the wall’ from the TV show; in other words, the
place where evil savages live and wait to destroy the humans on the other side,
protected by the great wall.
Changing such mocking views of Syrian culture
– such as this Game of Thrones tweet – demands endless efforts; at the
very least to move public opinion of Syrians from savages ‘beyond the wall’ that
protects humans from other humans. We don’t dream of being better; but merely
of being among them.
This piece was first published in Arabic on 30 September 2017.
